Sunday, December 27, 2015

December 21, 2015 - Monday ~ ~ Family Home EveningWe had an appointment this afternoon with our accountant. He took a photo of us by the Christmas tree in his office.

For FHE Walt helped me with the Family Life Sketches we are finishing for our kids and grandkids for Christmas.

December 22, 2015 - TuesdayHere's the photo I found today while working on Grampa Ray's like sketch. It's Ray at age 32 in 1940 with three of Jane's four Prescott brothers and her Dad, Byrum Prescott.Front row Kids left to right: Carol*, Walt, Phyllis, Bonnie, and Jimmy*. L-R: Tom, Dean, Byrum, Heber. Back row: Jane is holding Dale, then Ray. *Dean's children.Walt and I love these old black and white family snapshots. We do wish they had been in color, however. Then the beautiful bright red hair of Phyllis, his sister would show.Phyllis would be 8, his sister Bonnie 10, Walt 8, and Dale almost 1 year old.

My sweet, busy visiting teachers came by with the December message about Christ's attributes of being kind and compassionate. Left to right: Lori Bair and her darling son, Cameron; Alyson Burgess and her three darling children.

This was a fun surprise for Walt. Janie had called me Saturday and said they were driving over on Tuesday, and then Wednesday morning would head on to Salt Lake City where Shawn was flying out to Los Angeles to help Heidi drive back home to Rexburg all that night.

I had told Walt I wanted to cook a turkey and a ham and bake some rolls so we would have "left overs" when we got back home after Christmas--which was true, I did. But I was also cooking them to have dinner ready for the Fishers when they arrived. So dinner was all ready when they arrived. Even tho the turkey didn't get cooked enough in time for dinner, we had the delicious Falls Brand Tavern Ham, then they got to take the turkey and about 3 dozen rolls to make sliders for lunch on their drive to Utah the next day.

December 23, 2015 - WednesdayBefore they left they wanted a photo by the "blue" Christmas tree. This is the tree and John's family cut down in the mountains Thanksgiving weekend. The permit is $10 per tree, but they wouldn't let us pay for it. With several cans of spray snow it became our "white tree with blue lights."

Our tradition was to have a blue tree in the blue living room, then the kids' tree with colored light in the family room.(need to take a photo of the kids' tree)Then we went to Charlie's for breakfast. On the way, since they were trying to get to SLC as soon as possible, I called their van to see if they wanted to just go to a fast food place. The vote was overwhelmingly "No Way!"

Ashley got biscuits and gravy as did Daniel and Grampa. She could only eat one biscuit, then shared with Sam and Daniel.

Sam got the Mexican/Spanish omlet. (Eat your heart out, Parker.)

José, who owned and ran Charlie's for many years (now sold to his son) came out to talk with us. We are so proud of him for being the "Businessman of the Year" for the Mini-Cassia Area (see blog in November).

No one went away hungry! Some people in Burley ask us where "Charlie's" is. It's right next to the Arctic Circle, across from the Fair Grounds.

We always love to have the Fishers come to visit us from Rexburg.

They called when they got to the Junction to tell us the Freeway was closed to Utah, so they were going via Pocatello, then to the Utah border from there. In an hour or so they called to say the snow was blowing really bad there and some places it was a white out. We decided we were not going to drive in those conditions, so we missed our grandkids cousins' Christmas party that night. Fishers made up for our not being there by surprise crashing the party.(copy one of Janie's photos here)Ken Harper surprised us that afternoon by coming to put in the new handle that had just come in for our sliding glass patio door.

Couldn't get my flash to go off by the glass door.

Here's some more old photos I found to add some more to Grampa Ray's like sketch.

December 24, 2015 - Thursday

We worked up until the last minuted to finish the Family History notebooks that we were making for each family. Here's the beautiful and yummy tray of Christmas cookies that Gary and Colleen McCall brought to us.We left at 2:00 to drive to Utah.

We got to David and Julie's home in Draper at 5:30 and enjoyed a Christmas Eve dinner with them.While Julie was putting the finishing touches on dinner, David helped Walt and me put the final family history notebooks together with the dividing tabs.Anna, Sam, and William showed us their newly remodeled dining room that is now a study room for them.

Before we left we took a photo of them in their living room.

Then at 7:45 we were on our way to Steve and Natalie's home for the rest of Christmas Eve.

We got to Steve and Natalie's home to share the rest of Christmas Eve with them. Here's Kimble and Cortney.

Here's Kelsey and Josh, and Natalie

They had delicious hors' douevers throughout the evening.

Their tradition is to open all their presents on Christmas Eve togethert. Kimble loves anything Super Man!

Cortney and Scott had fun that day finishing their shopping when they got back to Utah from a long truck haul. They are both big-rig truck drivers.

Steve isn't about to share his great gift of tennis balls.

Carter's turn next!

Fun surprise for Grampa Walt!

Steven's Gormet Hot Chocolate - Mint flavor for Grampa Walt.

Beautiful Nativity book for Grama Eileen.

More fun presents for the boys.

Just what Scott always wanted.

Westlake Soccer town for Carter.

Westlake Swim Team Towel for Kimble.

Two more rows of photos to do for Christmas Eve at Steve and Nat's...12 photos in each row; December 25, 2015 - FridaynextnextDecember 26, 2015 - SaturdaynextnextDecember 27, 2015 - Sundaynext

Monday, December 14, 2015

We had "A Dickens Christmas" at the home of Gary and Colleen McCall. As each one came, it was interesting to see how they had come up with the 1812 to 1870s attire (lifetime of Charles Dickens).Gary and Colleen McCall - our host and hostess.

Dan Black...

David and Marilyn Gibbons...

Steve and Sherry Ormond...

Ken and Bonnie Fronk...

Ken and Bonnie Hansen...

Walt and Eileen Petersen...

They served a tri-tip roast with mashed potatoes and gravy, two hot vegetables, a tossed salad, a gelatin salad, homemade rolls, and a refrigerator peppermint dessert.

Gary put on pitchers of ice water, and also bottles of Perrier Mineral Water.

This table beautifully set for 8...

And this table beautiful set for 5...

And the McCall's home beautifully decorated for Christmas...

♪♫It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...♫♪

Looks good enough to eat, doesn't it...

And it was good enough to eat...

The final course was Refrigerator Peppermint Dessert...

Then we retired to the living room to sing Christmas Carols...♫♪I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day♪♫♪♫ Joy to the World ♫♪♫♪ O, Come All Ye Faithful ♪♫♪♫ Silent Night ♫♪The rolled up scrolls seen on the Christmas plates had this Charles Dickens' quote from his famous A Christmas Carol...

“Scrooge became better than his word. He did it all and infinitely more; and to
Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend as good a master,
and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town,
or borough, in the good old world.

“Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but
he let them laugh. His own heart laughed, and that was quite enough for him.”

Then for the FHE program, the McCalls asked each one
there to answer this question:

“How can we keep Christmas in the world for the entire
coming year?”

Here are a summary of the answers:

Walt said “The strongest thing to keep Christmas all
year long is to remember we are literally a son or daughter of God and brother
or sister of Jesus Christ.

“Brother Ormond came and stopped me from shoveling some snow. He
has taken this on as his ‘job’ in helping us.
We all need to be anxiously engaged in doing good like that. My sweetheart helps me remember to be what
Heavenly Father and Christ expect us to be.
She helps me every day.”

Eileen, I can’t remember exactly what I said (I wrote down
what everyone else said but not what I said.) I did mention what Marilyn
Gibbons said that they keep one Nativity Set out all year long to help them
remember the birth of the Savior and His Atonement. We, too, keep at least one Nativity Set
out.

I try to be loving and kind to all I come in contact
with.

I framed the front of a Christmas card that Steve
& Susan Tuft sent us years ago:

“I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it
all the year.” – Charles Dickens

December 15, 2015 - Tuesday ~ ~ My Birthday "77"We started the morning with a routine EKO for Walt for a follow up ordered by his cardiologist, Dr. Reed Harris.Then we had our traditional birthday breakfast: donuts and chocolate milk.

Always a fun way to start the day...

Wonder what's in that package?

A beautiful new watch...

I was sad when the beautiful 50th Wedding Anniversary watch gave me on June 14, 2011, stopped running...even with a new battery. Here's a better view...

That LaRae Crane, my visiting teaching partner, had a lunch for the sisters we visit teach--Cindy Young, Karen Taylor, and Debbie Harrell--plus her two visiting teachers--Chris Kemp and Lori

I taught the lesson. For December the Attributes of Christ wereThat evening Ruth Melling took Walt and me to dinner at Perkins, and then we watched the Republican Presidential Debates on CNN.

Then we had lunch with Dale and Connie and Ron and Judy Osterhout, friends from Burley.Walt, Dale, and Ron, were friends at the University of Idaho and lived at the LDS Institute House.December 17, 2015 - Thursdaynext Today we drove to Twin Falls to rendezvous with Dale Bunn, Dale and Connie for our brother-sister Christmas luncheon at the Depot Grill. We miss Phyllis not being with us, since she passed away August 3, 2014.That evening we enjoyed the Magic Philharmonic Orchestra Christmas Concert. They played wonderful Christmas songs, such asDecember 18, 2015 - Fridaynext Today we stayed home and worked on the family history like sketches that we are typing for our kids and grandkids for Christmas gifts.We took time out to go to the viewing for Michael Pollard.nextDecember 19, 2015 - SaturdayThis morning we went to the funeral for Michael Pollard.We enjoyed a visit from Brent and Vicki Peterson, John's parents. They brought back something of Walt's that John had given to his Dad to give to Walt.At 1:30 we went over to Ruth Melling's home to watch the BYU football team play University of Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl. It was a shock tonextWhen we got home, this photo had been e-mailed to us by my nephew Michael Robertson of their family. I had asked Janice to send me current photos of Michael and Candace and their two sons and she had Michael send me this.It's a darling photo of Michael and Candace and their two little boys, Justin and Ryan. They are expecting a baby girl in March 2016.

About Us

Walt was born in Wendell, Idaho,and has lived in Idaho 64 of his 83 years. Eileen was born in the Twin Falls Idaho Hospital going home to Wendell from there, and have lived in Idaho for 56 of my 78 years. Married June 14, 1961 in Salt Lake Temple. We thank our children and grandchildren for the wonderful 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration they hosted for us in June 2011. We went on a Mediterranean cruise (thanks again to our children) to celebrate our 50th--a year early to be with D. Kelly Ogden as he lectured "In the Footsteps of Paul the Apostle." We have lived in St. Louis,MO, Minneapolis,MN; Talihina,OK; Burley,IDAHO 42 years, 3 years in Merida, Mexico;2 years in Guatemala City, Guatemala; 18 mos in Argentina,Oct 2008 to Mar 2010; and 3 years as temple president and matron of the new (dedicated Aug 21, 2011) San Salvador El Salvador Temple for--July 2011 to Nov 1, 2014. We love and adore each other, our 7 children, their spouses, and our 35 grandchildren.
Walt is a physician, I was a medical secretary for PHT, then homemaker and mother.
We are staunch Republicans.